MTV Nominates French Techno for Video of the Year

Super-hot Paris duo Justice's single "D.A.N.C.E." has been nominated for MTV's "Video of the Year" alongside regulars Beyonce, Rihanna, Justin Timberlake and Kanye West, as well as newcomer Amy Winehouse. One might be tempted to see this nomination as an acknowledgement of grungy Francophile nu-rave's dominion over dance floors worldwide (and it is a pretty good video to boot, featuring cute animated T-shirts); but really, it's just a publicity stunt. It was just last year when the quirky video for Justice's remix of Simian's "Never Be Alone" upset Kanye West's "Touch the Sky" for Video of the Year at the MTV Europe awards in Copenhagen; Kanye, famously, crashed the stage and gave an expletive-filled rant about why his "million-dollar" video should have snagged the award instead. So, as Idolator points out: MTV America is just concocting a cheeky little rematch between the hot-headed rapper and the hapless Frenchmen. Having Kanye actually present at the announcement in New York today, joking (?) he's "still mad" about the loss, adds to the feeling of a setup. Whatevs: anything that gets Justice in front of more eyes and ears is a good thingalthough I suspect MTV won't exactly be putting "D.A.N.C.E." into heavy rotation.

The MTV Video Music Awards are on your TV September 9th; check out the rest of the nominees here. (The only other sort of interesting nod is Peter Bjorn & John for "Best New Artist.") Watch the video for "D.A.N.C.E." below.